Even if non-profit groups are paying high salaries (usually to retain talent), it's very different than profits going to shareholders. The purpose of a _for-profit_ company is to deliver returns to its shareholders. Therefore, decisions are inherently biased towards increasing that value as much as possible. Whereas the purpose of a non-profit is not to pay high salaries to its CEOs, and therefore decisions aren't biased towards that, nor does the CEO's salary grow relative to the hospital's growth. (The hospital increasing its profit margin by 15% doesn't mean the CEO's salary goes up by 15% -- whereas it would mean that shareholder value increases by 15%.)